China Has a Flourishing Exhibition Industry

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Dr. Hans-Joerg Geduhn has been working in china for over 6 years. But he denied that his understanding with China was resulted from these few years. Possibly influenced by the Chinese books in his home in Germany, he began to study Chinese when he was 18.

His proficiency in Chinese gave him an easy access to a job. After being employed by Hamburg-based Hoechst Aktiengesellschaft, he was responsible for arranging the company’s participation in exhibition. This was the first time he touched the exhibition industry. Later, he was sent to Beijing as the chief representative of this company before moving to Japan as the German Chamber of Commerce in Japan.

His working experience in Japan is featured with more frequent contact with the exhibition. With several experts working for him, Dr. Geduhn got more familiar with the exhibition. This earned him the working opportunity in BMW, which brought him back to China as a director for BMW’s exhibition in China.

What Shanghai International SNIEC So Special?

Though Dr. Geduhn joined in Shanghai New International Expo Center (SNIEC) in 2006 upon the invitation of his friend, he knew the Exhibition Center’s history very well. As he said, the SNIEC was initially built in 2001, three years after the formation of the plan. “We initially had no detailed construction plan. We conservatively built 4 pavilions, each of which covers 11,500 square meters. However, the pavilions proved to be extremely popular and thus we continued to build more pavilions till we had no land for more pavilions.”

“We first planned to stop expansion once the market is saturated. However, we never knew when the market was saturated. All we get is that our current size cannot meet the growing demand,”Dr. Geduhn said. “Last year, the SNIEC hosted 32 exhibitions, making it the busiest exhibition center in the world. In comparison, the best exhibition centers in Germany could maximally host 15-16 exhibitions every year.”

Then what made the SNIEC so popular in China? As Dr. Geduhn explained, “Shanghai has a better infrastructure, even better than Germany. For example, there is a magnetic suspension railway station next to the SNIEC. If some multinationals’ bosses are pressed for time, they can take the magnetic suspension from Pudong Airport to the SNIEC within 7 minutes to deliver a presentation or take part in some social activities. Then they can take the magnetic suspension back to the airport. The whole journey takes several hours, which is not possible to occur in other places, including Frankfurt, Munich and so on.”

The better infrastructure also includes good accommodation conditions. As Dr. Geduhn said, hotels are very important for exhibition centers. “If the hotels close to exhibition centers are not good while good hotels are far away from exhibition centers, the exhibitors and visitors will be less impressed and they may not choose to host their exhibitions there,” Dr. Geduhn said.

Therefore, from last year, two super hotels are established besides the SNIEC. Meanwhile, the surrounding transportation facilities are gradually improved as well. Six comprehensive parking grounds are built to accommodate 5000 cars. Even though this could not help the shortage of cars during the rainy nights, they have signed a contract with Shanghai Bashi Car Renting Com- pany, giving its tax drivers subsidies if they come here more frequently especially on the rainy day.

The Uniqueness of the SNIEC

Apart from the convenient transportation and accommodation facilities, the SNIEC itself also owns unique fea- tures that could explain its popularity. Even though there is no land for further expansion, the idea of adding more levels to the existing exhibition pavilions never comes to Dr. Geduhn and his team.

Dr. Geduhn explained: “The SNIEC is a comprehensive exhibition center. We purposely avoid the multilevel exhibition pavilions in the design. That’s because the multi-level pavilions must use columns to support its upper levels. But columns will restrict the design of exhibition stages and limit people’s activity space. For example, an exhibition requires an exhibition stage covering 300 square meters will take flexible and artful design. But if there are columns, the stage deployment will not go at the designers’ pleasure and the utilization of area is to be affected.”

“In addition, the multi-level pavilions must put the problem of load- bearing into consideration. The upper levels are not suitable for placing overweight exhibits. Thus, multi-level exhibition pavilions might affect the quality of exhibitions. When we designed the pavilions of the SNIEC, we fully absorb the experiences of our German shareholders and avoid the multi-level pavilions. The result is that the SNEIC can accommodate any kind of exhibition. From cosmetics, toys, video products to cars, printing machines and engineering machines, everything could be placed in any pavilion of the SNIEC.”

With so many advantages, the SNIEC grew with its clients in the past ten years. Dr. Geduhn said: “Most of them are our old clients. They show their gratitude to us because they have no place to display their products and technologies without the SNIEC. This makes me very proud.”

Not Only an Exhibition Center

A dozen of years ago, when the SNIEC was still under planning, the area where it is now located is still a farming area. As the general manager of the SNIEC, Dr. Geduhn has witnessed the development of not only the SNIEC, but also the surrounding area.

“From a farmland to the ‘busiest exhibition center in the world, the case of SNIEC has proven the great driving force of a large exhibition center to the economic development of surrounding area,” Dr. Geduhn said. “I knew some data – I am not very sure about its accuracy – that a visitor or exhibitor spends one yuan in the SNIEC, he/she will spend 9.3 yuan in catering, accommodation and travel in the surrounding area. That’s why we have super hotels, film centers and large restaurants around us. They come here to serve us and improve our facilities, but we bring them with more customers – we help each other and develop each other. With such a driving force, the SNIEC has a great influence in Shanghai, even the Puxi area could feel our presence”

The change of people’s opinions towards the exhibition industry is also seen by Dr. Geduhn, who touched this field long ago. In his opinion, people previously held a cold attitude towards the exhibitions and the exhibitors did not know clearly about the importance of exhibitions. “But things have changed greatly in these years,” he said.“The exhibition stages of Chinese exhibitors are completely different from the past. They are grander, more beautiful and more costly, like their foreign counterparts. At first, some exhibitors told me that they could not see obvious effect after joining in an exhibitor. Now they say that the exhibition has a great influence on the promotion of their products and technologies and the influence is growing year by year. Presently, if a company does not join in an exhibition, people will doubt that it might encounter some problems in operation or even its goes bankrupt –the exhibition has become a showcase window for enterprises.”

The Competition Is What We Want

As the flourishing exhibition industry is recognized by more and more people, the Shanghai government is going to build the Hongqiao International Exhibition and Convention Center. According to the Shanghai government’s plan, the exhibition center in Hongqiao will be the second largest exhibition center in the world.

Dr. Geduhn admitted that this was a new situation that the SNIEC faces.“At first there might be competition,”he said. “But for the long term, we need cooperation. I do not think that the Expo Center will pose a threat against the SNIEC. What I worry about is that the low-price cut-throat competition which is very likely to happen in a city with many exhibition centers. If the market demand is high, the low-price competition is very likely to occur to harm the whole exhibition industry of this city – exhibition centers will have low price to attract the exhibitors, but the low price cannot guarantee the quality, possibly leading to a bad impression of exhibitors who do not want to come to this city.

Dr. Geduhn said: “There are many exhibition centers in Shanghai, but we cannot feel the competition because we have advantages that others cannot possess. For me, the biggest problem at this moment is the short supply for the increasing demand. Some exhibitions might be held in smaller exhibition centers in Puxi, Shanghai, but when their size grows, they are more suitable to be held in the SNIEC. Since we do not have the capacity for further expansion, it is impossible for us the meet the increasing demand. Therefore, the establishment of the Hongqiao International Exhibition & Convention Center may release us from the current stress. In addition, we can cooperate with the new participant to further improve the exhibition industry in Shanghai and even China.”